Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a type of severe acute lung dysfunction affecting all or most of both lungs and can be a severe complication of any number of factors such as pneumonia, sepsis, trauma, or inhaled irritants. Direct and indirect insults to the parenchyma or vasculature of the lungs are typically followed by rapid-onset respiratory failure. ARDS is a serious condition with associated high mortality that afflicts approximately 200,000 people in the United States each year, leading to approximately 75,000 deaths. A number of clinical trials of treatments for ARDS have been conducted and to date none have been proved highly effective; therefore there is a great need for new, more effective treatments.